Much Ado About ‘Thinks Fall Apart’.

By Mohammed Adamu

All this bear-parlor talk about ‘no book has sold or was translated into more languages than ‘Things Fall Apart’ is ridiculous! No selection committee in search of ‘genius’ especially genius demonstrated in such highly cerebral field as literature, will bother itself which such pedestrian criteria!

In any case if a tree in the forest shoots up in a manner more easily amenable to the climbing whims and caprices of every Tom Dick and Harry, will that make that tree any mightier than other trees? No! Only firm ‘rooting’, dignified ‘shooting’, long ‘standing’ and proud ‘foliage’ distinguish the ‘tree’ from other ‘trees’!

It will not matter how many adventurers are able to climb a tree! But it is sufficient that the tree is climbable nonetheless; even if it is only by a few distinguished and outstanding climbers! Rarity after all is one of the hallmarks of quality!

And as the proverbials would say, the test of every ‘pudding’ is in the ‘eating’; -not in the quantum of the pud! Just as the ‘test’ of the good wine lies in the taste buds of rare, few connoisseurs; not ever in the guzzling or bibbing throats of a multitude of drunkards!

And who knows, probably ‘Eze Goes To School’ too, sold more than did any of Soyinka’s works of ‘fiction’, ‘poetry’ or ‘drama’. But should its authors (Michael Crowder and Onuora Nzekwu) therefore have been the Laureates, instead of Soyinka?

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